Amelia Elkins Elkins: A New Retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion

In 1817, if childbirth didn’t kill a woman, then there were good odds that a “miasma” would. Now, thanks to modern medicine, a woman’s demise at the prime of her life is uncommon enough to deserve an investigation. That is what two lawyers at the Harville Firm promise to do when Amelia Elkins Elkins, a member of a prominent family in Philadelphia, contacts them in the wake of her mother’s untimely death.

In this retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Amelia and her sisters turn to the American court system to seek justice for their mother’s death. It’s too bad that their conceited, silly father is doing everything he can — inadvertently, of course — to hinder their success.

This is the description of my new book, Amelia Elkins Elkins, an homage to Persuasion, my favorite Austen novel. In this retelling, Anne Elliot is now Amelia Elkins…

4 comments

Thank you so much for your kind words about my novel–and for reblogging my post about it! I hope I have done justice to Jane Austen’s classic. It was so much fun to update her characters and place them in my hometown. The Elkins family, based on Austen’s Elliots, live in a fictionalized version of a Gilded Age mansion a few blocks away from where I grew up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynnewood_Hall). Sadly, the real mansion is in terrible shape.

You are so welcome! I was wondering about the house, I had in mind La Ronda (which was torn down), designed by Addison Mizner, while I was reading… Now I have to check out your inspiration. You did a very cogent update — and still kept that tone — that sense of domestic comedy, that kept me chuckling. xox, V

Thank you! I’d never heard of La Ronda before, even though I don’t live far from Bryn Mawr. It’s terribly sad when these old buildings are torn down. I’m worried about what will happen to Lynnewood Hall. It’s on the market now for 17.5 Million.